A threatening letter made up of magazine clippings was sent to Union HQ from an unknown person who claims he or she will come to Union on this show. The message contained a lot of sexual phrases, so much so that Naomi Susan considered it to be sexual harassment as she read it. She wondered if the message came from Ganbare☆Wrestling or if it was Richard Burn. Isami Kodaka figured out that it had to be somebody else working on their own. They decided that the mysterious person will have to wrestle Tomoya Kawamura if he/she shows up.

After being caught off guard by the appearance of Ganbare☆Wrestling at the last show, Union now has Daichi Kazato & Mitomi Masayuki as their first line of defence for Ken Ohka & Yumehito Imanari. Kazato said they will crush the Ganpuro team and asked if they are even a major wrestling company.

The Idea Pocket Divas attending the show this time around are Mai Tamaki, Rinon Miyasaki and Harumi Tachibana.

Yuka Sakazaki learned some dirty tactics to use against Miyu Yamashita. She untied Daisuke Kiso’s shoelaces and then choked Yamashita with mat tape while the ref was busy tying his shoe. She tried the trick again later in the match but this time it didn’t work and Yamashita beat her with the Crash Rabbit Heat.

Nonoko again used her bust to great effect, beating KANNA with a Modified Dragon Sleeper where KANNA’s face was pressed against Nonoko’s chest, followed by the Boinmaker and the Pie Fly Flow.

Ririko Kendo, real name Ririko Ishizawa, is a new trainee who made her wrestling debut today. After only wrestling on a mat for her first match, she now wants to get into a ring.

If he hasn’t proven it already, HARASHIMA is a dominant champion. Shigehiro Irie in my mind had the best shot at becoming the man to win the KO-D Openweight Title from HARASHIMA and he was struck down by the champ today. HARASHIMA called Irie a very strong fighter and told him to challenge again and again. HARASHIMA was asked who he wanted to defend the belt against next. Masa Takanashi came out but Amon Tsurumi flat out told him no. He won’t give him the match because his win-loss record lately is bad. Takanashi said he should get the match because he is the Iron Man Heavymetalweight Champion. Yasu Urano then snuck behind Takanashi and pinned him with a School Boy to become the new Iron Man Champion. Takanashi then begged for a match with Urano so he can win back that title. Tsurumi booked it for the 2nd February Nagoya show. Tsurumi then apologised to HARASHIMA for not finding a No. 1 Contender.

Yankii Ni Cho Kenji’s goal of achieving 100 KO-D Tag Team Title defences has been cut short by the Golden Lovers. Even worse for the former champions, neither Yuko Miyamoto or Isami Kodaka were pinned to lose the belts. Konosuke Takeshita & Tetsuya Endo were also involved in the 3 Way Tag match after they fought the Golden Lovers to a time limit draw in Osaka two weeks ago. Kota Ibushi & Kenny Omega were able to isolate Endo and give him the PK Mind Double Tombstone to become the new champions. After the match Kodaka told Ibushi to give them back the belts but Ibushi said no. Kodaka refused to accept the result because neither he or Miyamoto were pinned. Miyamoto demanded a title match against the Lovers and Amon Tsurumi booked it for Nagoya next week. Kenny was okay with the decision because he wants a good challenge and the Yankees are a strong team.

Hikaru Sato fought his final match for DDT today, teaming with Sanshiro Takagi to face Yukio Sakaguchi & Akito. Sakaguchi decided to wrestle the match bare footed when he squared up with Sato. Both had big smiles on their faces as they fought and taunted each other. Sato won his final DDT match by submitting Akito and “Dream Fighter” by Perfume played over the speakers as Takagi, Sakaguchi and Michael Nakazawa gave him their goodbyes. Sato and Nakazawa even shared a kiss! Sato then threw his leg guards and knee pads into the crowd as they chanted his name.

Toru Owashi thought that he and Yoshiko were like brother and sister when they teamed together to beat Makoto Oishi & Saki Akai. Yoshiko pinned Akai to serve the model her first loss in wrestling. When asked about Akai during a post-match interview, Yoshiko said she has not grown as a wrestler since her debut last year. She was asked to compare Akai with Yuzuki Aikawa and she said they don’t compare at all. Akai admitted she was afraid if she messed up and if her body cannot keep up with the other wrestlers in the ring. Oishi consoled her as she began crying. Akai said she will practice more and more and will get revenge on Yoshiko.

A chain of Figure Four Necklocks resulted in the Iron Man Heavymetalweight Title changing hands four times in four seconds. Masa Takanashi went into the Battle Royal as champion and was able to win back the title before the time ran out. He then lost the belt to Urano at the end of the show.

DDT has a new sponsor on their corner posts. They are sponsored by a PC web browser game called Joshi Wrestling War Ring☆Dream (女子プロレス大戦リング☆ドリーム). As part of this deal Sanshiro Takagi, Antonio Honda and Michael Nakazawa will get gender-swapped versions of themselves added to the game! T-shirts of their characters will also be sold at future DDT shows.

MMA fighter Mitsuyoshi Nakai announced he will compete at the 28th February Hard Hit show. Mitsuyoshi is the son of manga artist Yoshinori Nakai, one half of the Yudetamago duo famous for making Kinnikuman. Hikaru Sato described his fight style as Pancrase-like and he scouted him because of that style. Nakai received an offer to do pro wrestling by Takagi and Sato last year but he wasn’t sure to accept it. However he became a fan of Hard Hit and wanted to take part.

DDT held a press conference at the TEC Offices in Shinjuku to promote HARASHIMA’s next two title defences. First up is the KO-D Openweight Title match versus Shigehiro Irie. The rematch of last year’s Peter Pan main event is something that has been on Irie’s mind for a while. He felt great frustration over losing the title and wants to get rid of that by winning it back. HARASHIMA told Irie that kind of frustration is a good thing because it encourages him to become a stronger human being.

The press conference continued with the appearance of Keisuke Ishii, who immediately attacked HARASHIMA. Tempers calmed down and the two were able to continue the conference as if nothing happened. HARASHIMA decided the rules for their upcoming DDT Extreme Title match in Nagoya. After wrestling Antonio Honda in a Blindfold Bra Match where he had to rely on just his hands, HARASHIMA now wanted to see what it was like to wrestle with just his feet. So for the match, both men will have their hands tied together and will have to rely on their legs to wrestle. However, Ishii had an idea of his own. He wanted to have a Cliff Death Match where you have to do a move from the ring apron to the floor in order to win. Ishii is a big fan of apron spots. He even has a Top 3 all time favourite apron spots. His Top 3 apron spots are:

Amon Tsurumi decided that both rules will be used in a 2 out of 3 Falls match. Fall 1 will be HARASHIMA’s Feet Only Death Match and Fall 2 will use Ishii’s Cliff Death Match rules. The rules for a possible third fall will be created by Tsurumi the day before the show.

Mio Shirai had been spending the last week teasing a very important announcement. Rumours going around the Japanese wrestling scene included Mio announcing her retirement, a marriage engagement or even a pregnancy. Instead the big reveal was Mio had signed a contract and will end to her status as a freelancer. However, it turned out that Mio was signing a contract with not one, not two, not even three but four different wrestling companies. Taking a cue from Kota Ibushi, Shirai signed contracts with Pro Wrestling WAVE, Oz Academy, Ice Ribbon and Union.

After wrestling for seven years, Mio felt it was time to form an afilliation with one of the companies she works for. However she couldn’t decide who to choose. Inspired by Ibushi’s dual contract with DDT and New Japan, Shirai was inspired to do the same and wanted to be with the promotions she enjoyed working for most. Union boss Naomi Susan said she was very surprised to hear about Mio’s idea at first but is happy that she chose Union to be one of the companies. Since the Union roster is mostly filled with men, Susan hopes Mio’s signing will begin an expansion of Joshi in Union. Mayumi Ozaki said she was the only person in Oz Academy who knew about Mio’s plans. Ice Ribbon’s Tsukasa Fujimoto is amazed at the idea and thinks it is a boost that comes just in time for Mio to replace Hikaru Shida, who will be leaving the company in March. WAVE’s Mikiko Futagami (formerly known as GAMI) is expecting more merchandise sales to come from this signing and pointed out she might be actually working for 5 or 6 companies if you include her Osaka Joshi shows.

Mio’s first show with Union under the contract will be at Yokohama on 11th February.

The annual contract renewals for the entire DDT roster took place this week. The sad news is Hikaru Sato did not renew his contract and will leave the company at the end of the month. Sato posted his comments on DDT’s site thanking them for his growth as a wrestler. He describes his transformation over the years as being able to survive the world of professional wrestling because he learned there is no single ideology needed to succeed. In DDT he was able to “rampage freely” with his ideas and Hikaru Sato would not exist without them. However he will not get many new opportunities if his career stays sterile. In Pancrase he was taught “The right of freedom is given only to those who played a duty of responsibility” and in order to fulfil his dream he needs to go out and do more.

He gained strength and jealousy from wrestling with Kota Ibushi, became friends with HARASHIMA as his equal and got to learn from Yukio Sakaguchi. Sato also had a lot of good things to say about Michael Nakazawa, who he had formed a very perverted team with over the years. Sato will continue to run Hard Hit but will no longer be involved with DDT’s day to day activities. He is unsure of where his journey will take him next and he may return to DDT in the future (he joked he could be back in three days time). But for now his final match will be himself and Sanshiro Takagi versus Yukio Sakaguchi & Akito on 26th January. Sato ended his message asking his fans to attend the show wearing the Pancrase Dead Or Alive t-shirt.

The other main change in contracts is Daisuke Sasaki becoming a full time member of the roster. He was previously wrestling for DDT as a freelancer. Konosuke Takeshita is in his final year of high school and his contract will be sorted out after his college entrance exam. Hoshitango is currently back home in Argentina but an agreement is in place for a contract when he returns.